Had 1/2 inch of snow last night. At least a foot of ice and hard snow on the ground yet. Subzero temps earlier in the week. Things are definitely very dormant. Only one above freezing spell for four or five days all winter, or there would be several feet of snow on the ground yet. No early spring in sight here yet near St. Paul. Northwoodswis

We've had some mild weather and my peaches and cherries seem to be getting ready to break dormancy a bit earlier than is safe. We have had early warm spells in past years that caused loss of the peach crop. I hope we don't get that this year. We'll see. I remember when I first moved to mid-Missouri over 20 years ago, that one of my new friends here had peach trees and said he only got peaches about once every five years. It hasn't been that bad in recent years, but spring in February has done us in a couple of times.

Chuck

It's entirely normal here that spring comes too early. We were record cold the first two weeks of February but record warmth since then. The early bloomers are busting out almost certainly to be frozen. It's the price we pay for nice outdoor weather all year long.

I'm going to be covering at least one peach outdoors and try to nurse it though the next 6 wks.

I'd think in most places in CA this is normal blooming time for Jap plums. When I lived near Fresno the earliest bloomers started in January some years and the late stuff like sweet cherries and apples came in March. Four years out there and I had zero weather losses.

We have weather losses every year here, either freezes, hail, wind; shoot I can't remember a year we haven't had all three.

Winter has been starting a little later and lasting a little longer here the last few years. In years past nearly all my trees had broken dormancy by Feb 15th. The past few years my trees have not been breaking dormancy until the first or second week of March. At this point roughly one third of my trees are just starting bud break. My best guess is that some trees will not break dormancy until the end of the month which is really late here. This was another cold winter by Arizona standards with many days 15-25 degrees below normal. Even so I expect to hear that this was one of our hottest winters on record.

We heard last year that last summer was the South Wests hotted summer on record. In the fine print the South West had been re-done leaving out California and that day time temps were not included and that they shifted the summer season by three weeks. Anything that needs to be done to get a headline of "The Hottest" or "One of the Hottest" is all that matters to those who produce the data. If there is a way to say it was hot they will no matter how they have to twist and shift the statistics.

It's has been extremely warm here in South Carolina everything is starting to bloom. Daffodils have been blooming and azaleas have bloom almost ready! It has been in the 80s here for the past couple of week but now finally in the 70s! Even blueberries are starting to bloom leaves

girlbug, sounds like you're in a similar area of the country as I am, and yes, my ornamental plums flowered very early this year. In fact, mine are about done flowering now, which is about a month earlier than normal. But, we really didn't have a warmer than normal winter, nor a drier one. In fact, we've have 3 frosts and a LOT of rain (bring on the rain). My Anna is just about done flowering and is setting fruit, Pink Lady is aleady blooming, so they are also a wee bit early, especially the Pink Lady.

Patty S.

I am in in Ventura County in SoCal. My pluots,most plums and peaches have already flowered or are still flowering. The warm weather in most of Jan was a pain, especially after a wet and cold Feb.

Well in NC, from what I've heard since I'm not there at the moment, it looks like the apricot is in full bloom and the peaches and ornamental Bradford Pears are just about to bloom. Blueberry bushes have swelled buds. I just hope there isn't another freeze, but for NC, we are still well within the time frame for freezes. During December and January we had record cold temperatures with ten inches of snow the day after Xmas.

Well, Im crossing my fingers!

Frozen solid here, although things will change very fast by late in the month. Last year we had a stretch of mid 60F's in early March, so its always possible.